🔒 Is it better to use dataclass or a custom class for an object that holds data?

[ruby heron]

Originally I was going to create a dataclass for an object that simply holds data:

@dataclass
class Album():
  artists: list
  songs: list
  release_date: str 
  popularity_rating: float

However I've realised I need to clean some of these attributes. E.g. the artists data is actually html that I need to parse before assigning to the artists attribute.

Would it better to just create a normal class?

I have a factory function that's creating the Album instances but I think it will be too much work for it to also parse the artists HTML that eventually becomes the artists attribute.

Thanks!

[fringe pecan]

@ruby heron

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[fathom pollen]

What's the difference in making it a normal class here?

[ruby heron]

The class is just meant to hold data - the only methods needed would be private, to clean the data passed when instantiating the class.

[fathom pollen]

Well the dataclass could still just edit it

[ruby heron]

Yeah i'm thinking I'll just use __post_init__

[fathom pollen]

Technically you probably should have your initial process parse the html before putting it in the object.

But if it does take way too long to do all that you can definitely just put it in the class

[ruby heron]

Yeah cool. Thanks!

!close

[fringe pecan]

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